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What an incredible way of starting my holidays. I was at home sorting and cleaning stuff when the DHL guy appeared with a box bigger than usual for a sample. My Wife looked me suspiciously and I had to swear that this time it was true; I haven’t ordered anything.

[Note to self: it worked! Next time try with full size bottles]

I checked the parcel and it has a reference; BMALTS. Ummm…

I was getting excited because I had read a week before a nice press release about the six new whiskies bottled by The Whisky Barrel for their Burns Malt range and I was really wondering how good they were.

All the bubbles are denied, so “trust” me, there is no such thing as a whisky bubble, emergent economies will take the drop in sales of countries under recession right now and later a herd of unicorns will appear and mature to perfection any booze the industry can produce at ten gazillion litres per seconds… finally only old Captain McCallister will be able to drink the stuff…

Lots of Bruichladdich on my sample box so I have decided to start tasting from the most interesting ones: Two of the new Cuvee whiskies and the new Bruichladdich 22 years old.

These three whiskies keeps loyal to the style of whisky that Jim McEwan set on the whole range of Bruichladdich malts: citrusy, sweet, unpeated. I love his work on Bruichladdich 10 years old Laddie whisky and I was really looking forward to tasting these malts.

In the last five years I have seen a constant increase in whisky prices I am interested in. I remember when a interesting new Ardbeg was only £60 or when a 25 years old Ardbeg Lord of Isles was so expensive at £150…

Many persons are now joining the wagon of whisky investment just for the future ( or immediate sometimes ) reward. So read why I think that this is quite a bad idea if you don’t know what you are doing.

I am a whisky collector, I collect whisky, really. Many friends have told me as an insult that I don’t open bottles. And yes, I don’t usually open them. I collect because I love the way the bottles look and love to see them one after the other, to put my hands on them. There is so little moments better than opening a box full of whisky… well, maybe having a dram of them may be better :)

An open bottle of whisky last several years on my cabinet, so I have an extra problem keeping open bottles at hand.

But I don’t buy whisky as an investment. I haven’t sold a single bottle of my collection nor I will (by now, until my country’s economy finally collapse I am forced to beg on a street corner). The whisky collection profit is an interior growth in knowledge and pleasure.

After a first fantastic release of their Rare Casks series, Abbey Whiskies asked on their blog about which one should be their next whisky on the range. There were two options: Bruichladdich or a peated Bunnahabhain. Apart of a few laddie fans the consensus was clear for a peated Bunna.

And so they bottled it. A 23 years old cask strength Bunnahabhain at a whopping 44% ABV. Just a few years shorts of not being legally whisky anymore :)

Bunnahabhain whiskies are somewhat of a hidden jewel to discover between the peat giants of Islay, but once you get a dram of their delicious 25 years old, you fall in true love for ever.

What? Not today? Damn! Hell, anyway… like if we need an excuse to have a good whiskey!.
You know St. Patrick, the holy patron of Ireland, the one that drove the snakes out of the island, the one that brought Christianity on Ireland and …

Enough writing. Let’s drink. As an old Irish saying says, “God invented whiskey so the Irish wouldn’t rule the world!”

As my contribution to the Irish whiskey let’s do a whiskey walk around Ireland. And as Sjoerd has told me several times I better state it right here and now: I love Single Pot Still Irish whiskey ( I just can’t stand their cheap blends ).

Drinkfinder.co.uk sent me two samples of Bruichladdich whiskies. Both of them are independent bottles for a private customer and both of them are bottled from a single cask ( each ) and bottled at a very high strength.

Specially promising is the Port Charlotte, so clear… that can only means a huge peated punch… but let’s taste… I need more peat after my fabulous octo-tasting

At last, Winter is coming to an end. And what better way of saying goodbye to this strange winter that with a few glasses of peat medicines?

In the quest to taste all the stuff that I have ordered, I have decided for five magnifique drams: Arran, Ardmore and three Bruichladdiches.

Didn’t you said peat? Yeah, and I am going to taste peated whiskies from those distilleries. A quite lovely bottled of Arran Machrie Moor, Ardmore Traditional, Port Charlotte 10 years old and two Octomore: 04.2 Comus and 03.1

You know that a have a little sweet heart that loves peat. I adore peated whiskies but on this tasting I have found a whisky that it is just too peated for me. Much like sucking mud!

Just a few weeks after I started blogging I wrote a short article about how scores worked in A Wardrobe of Whisky. I feel it is now my duty to update it after more than 800 whiskies tasted.

I do rate whiskies, and you should too, because I am desperately in need of sorting them. I hate bad whiskies, I hate even more when I buy a expensive whisky and isn’t a good one and definitively I hate overall Johnnie Walker ( all but Green and Blue label :P ).

In these three years I have got emails and messages usually pointing that such or such score for such whisky was a too high score. I have nothing to do with the whisky industry or any retailer, but being a worker myself I understand the degree of care and effort place on each bottle of whisky ( all but Johnnie Walker :P ). So let’s make clear, any decent drinkable whisky is scored between 80 and 84 points.

This last Christmas I got a bottle of DYC 8 ańos as a present and it haven’t been till now that I have found a chance of opening it.

Although DYC is the best selling ( even over Scotch whiskies ) whisky on Spain I haven’t had many chances of tasting it ( shame on me! ). It is really hard to find samples of it and as most of you know I have kinda of a logistic problem at home… so no more open full bottles… well, nevermind, I got this one as a present and I thougth it really deserves to be opened.

“Interesting. More woody character than the standard DYC with more spice aromas. Just a bit light for my taste but quite interesting”

A blind tasting is a quite interesting experience because tasting whiskies in this way you really pay more attention to the whisky and less to the bottle. I have tasted whiskies that I have considered good but nothing special ( Is there such a thing as bad whisky?! ) and then I discovered that I were tasting a 39 years old single malt. Have I known before hand what I was tasting I am 100% sure it would have affected my rating.

I recently bought a bottle of Longrow Rundlets and Kilderins and thought it was a great opportunity of tasting it side by side with the Springbank released last year.

Both whiskies are matured in smaller, 60 and 80 litres, casks that helps speed up the maturation of the spirit ( mainly the woody character, the rest need years and years whatever the size of the cask. I learnt it the hard way… )

I have been coding some changes to the web. The most relevant ones are:
1) You can now register into A Wardrobe of Whisky without Facebook, just old school username and password.
2) If you used the old Facebook button I am working tirelessly on allowing you to do it. Meanwhile you can create a new account and as soon as I have it fixed your old actions will be imported into the new account.

If all the above sounds strange, enjoy and have a dram! Welcome to A Wardrobe of Whisky.

About

Welcome to A Wardrobe of Whisky. I am Miguel.

This whisky blog is a way of handling my collection of single malts, find easily the best buy whisky prices for top online shops and a quest for finding the ultimate
single malt and the joys of failing the task.